


Top of the World

by Selene_Eleganza



Series: SNAP! (The Rubber Band Theory) [4]
Category: Big Hero 6 (2014), Big Hero 6: The Series (Cartoon)
Genre: Big Hero 6 Season 1, ESP, Empath, Empathy, Gen, Post-Big Hero 6 (2014), San Fransokyo Institute of Technology (Big Hero 6), Telekinesis, Telepathic Bond, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:13:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26538655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selene_Eleganza/pseuds/Selene_Eleganza
Summary: They stopped Yokai at Krei Tech. What's next? Well, our heroes are trying to figure that out. When Yama shows up at school looking for some weird paperweight, the newly-coined Big Hero 7 rises to the challenge. San Fransokyo isn't done with them yet.
Relationships: Fred | Fredzilla & Wasabi-No Ginger & Hiro Hamada & Tadashi Hamada & Honey Lemon & Gogo Tomago, Hiro Hamada & Professor Granville, Hiro Hamada & Tadashi Hamada, Tadashi Hamada & Professor Granville
Series: SNAP! (The Rubber Band Theory) [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1775395
Comments: 12
Kudos: 37





	1. New Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back! And more importantly, so are _they!_  
>  Yes, this is going to start out piggybacking on the plot for the show. But with Tadashi alive and with powers in the mix, things are going to start changing. As always, any feedback you have is welcome! Ideas, comments, criticism, grammar corrections, anything! Aside from helping me grow as a writer, your comments help me keep writing. Thank you!

Tadashi and Hiro pushed through the door to their shared lab, beaming at the space. It was Hiro’s first day, not that it was at all his first day in the lab. It _was_ their first time back since the fight at Krei Tech, though. Tadashi pulled a small frame out before he set his bag on a table. With Hiro watching from behind him, Tadashi hung it on the wall.

The light from the window caught on the shards within the frame. Red, black, white, and gold pieces were arranged artfully, in a way that not even the owner of the mask it had once been would be able to recognize it.

“Didn’t take you two as the trophy types,” a voice called from the door. Hiro and Tadashi turned as one to see Go Go leaning against the doorframe.

“It’s a reminder,” Tadashi corrected.

Hiro brandished the microbot on the thin chain around his neck. “Like this,” he added.

Go Go just watched them appraisingly for a long moment before popping a bubble and shrugging. “First classes start in ten,” she reminded. “Better get on that.” She shot them a lazy farewell wave as she left.

The Hamada brothers shared a mixed glance. They hadn’t actually been far from each other since the showcase. They didn’t have the same classes, so they’d often be separated on campus. If they were being totally honest, the separation made them uneasy. A million things could happen.

Hiro feared that Tadashi could get hurt, and he wouldn’t be around to help this time. The distance made him anxious. Hiro couldn’t drag Baymax around to help him manage his anxiety, as much as he (or Tadashi) would have liked him too.

Tadashi was afraid that Hiro would lose control without him there to help keep him calm. Although Tadashi was less concerned with the risk of exposure as he was with the fact that he wouldn’t be there when Hiro needed him. It made him anxious to be away from Hiro, but he hid it better than his brother. While it rankled to not be within protecting distance of his little brother, he was also concerned with their co-dependence. As much as Tadashi loved being with Hiro, at some point they had to be able to lead separate lives. It just wasn’t healthy to keep going the way they were.

“You ready?” Tadashi asked.

Hiro put on a brave face, the self-assured smile not quite reaching his eyes. “As I’ll ever be. Nerd School, Day 1. What could go wrong?”

“Misters Hamada.”

Tadashi and Hiro both flinched at the unfamiliar voice, heads snapping to the door in alarm. The woman at the door raised an eyebrow at them both, thankfully oblivious to the strong shield between her and the Hamada brothers. Hiro had gotten better about his defensive response, so there wasn’t anything aimed her way this time. They thanked their lucky stars for that.

“My name is Professor Granville,” the woman continued, “and I’m the new Dean of Students here at San Fransokyo Institute of Technology. I understand you two filed to share this upperclassman lab space?”

Tadashi blinked, still reeling that they’d been distracted enough for her to sneak up on them like that. “Uh, yeah.”

Professor Granville hummed. “Alright. I trust you two can work together then?”

Hiro nodded. “Definitely.”

“Alright, then. If either of you have any problems, let me know.” A warm smile split her face. “Welcome back, Tadashi, I’ve heard great things. Hiro, welcome to SFIT. I hope you learn a lot in your time here.”

“Uh, thanks,” Hiro murmured.

“Thank you, Professor Granville,” Tadashi added, warm and polite.

“Oh, and Hiro? I’ll see you in class.” Without another word, Granvile turned and walked away.

“What?” Hiro looked up to Tadashi in confusion. As one, they looked over to the clock on the wall.

“Oh, no.”

“We’re going to be late!”

Their voices overlapped as they rushed for the door. They quickly wished each other good luck, both too preoccupied with getting to class on time for either of them to be too worried about being separated.  
  
  


Their first class was… long. It helped that they were only a few buildings away, so they were in range of their mental link. One that they quickly realized _had_ a bit of a range. It both did and didn’t make sense. Like, well, everything _else_ about their conditions. Par for the course by now.

Once their days were over and they had free time, they gathered at Fred’s. Of course, Fred pushed for everyone to suit back up and go on night patrol. He’s met with unanimous disagreement.

“Freddie, it was a one-time thing,” Honey Lemon pressed.

Fred sputtered. “But Hiro fixed up our suits! He gave us fancy new visors and everything!”

All eyes turned to Hiro, who sighed big and deep. “Yeah, I fixed up our suits, made a few adjustments. But that was just in _case_ ,” he insisted. “It just… didn’t feel _right_ to get rid of them. But that… that wasn’t so we could… it was just in case something like Yokai happened again. Not so we could go out and do what the police do.” He hesitated. “I mean, I think what we did with Callaghan was legally grey at best. On the streets? Without some kind of crisis the police couldn’t handle alone? It might be downright illegal, Fred.”

Everyone pitched in their agreements. Fred groaned.

“But I got a distress signal spotlight and everything!” he moaned. “Look!” Fred moved over to a large tarp-covered shape. With a flourish, the tarp was removed and the spotlight turned on. Light flooded the ceiling, the word ‘HALP’ in bold relief. “Uh, that was supposed to be ‘HELP’...” Fred trailed off, glancing at Heathcliff. “Did we save the receipt?”

“We did not, Master Frederick.”

“Darn.”  
  
  


Hours later, all seven of them were scattered around an alley deep in the city. After hours of pestering by Fred, they caved. Ended up chasing a speeding car… only to find that it was a couple rushing to the hospital to deliver their baby. With that, they called it a night.

Tadashi, Hiro, and Baymax touched down outside SFIT, ready to sneak through the halls and return Baymax to the charger in the lab. Halfway through the building, Tadashi froze.

“Tadashi?” Hiro called quietly.

His brother held up his hand, calling for silence. _‘There’s someone here,’_ he sent over silently.

Hiro stiffened immediately. _‘Who?’_

_‘I’m not sure, but whoever they are, they’re lost, so they aren’t supposed to be here. They’re looking for something.’_

_‘How many?’_

Tadashi was silent for a moment. “I’m not sure,” he murmured quietly. “Baymax, scan the building for signs of human life. Anything you can find. How many people are down that hallway?”

Baymax straightened, pivoting his head slowly. “There are eight people down that hallway,” Baymax informed quietly.

Tadashi and Hiro shared a look. “I don’t like this,” Tadashi added.

“Baymax, if there’s anything else to tell us, put it on our visors. Let’s see what they’re up to.” Hiro looked to Tadashi for approval, and his brother spared him a firm nod. It was one thing to find crime on the streets, but on their turf? It made it feel a lot more personal.

Tadashi looked back at Baymax. “Tell the others what’s going on. We might not need their help, but…”

“Message sent,” Baymax intoned.

Hiro nodded. “Okay. Let’s go.”

They stalked down the hallway, Baymax transmitting heightened audio to their headsets. One voice, the boys recognized.

“Yama?” Hiro hissed.

Tadashi gritted his teeth. “Are you kidding me? What the hell is a bot fighter doing here?” He made sure to spare Hiro a teasing glance. “Sparing present company, of course.”

Hiro rolled his eyes. “Funny. I don’t know, maybe he came to steal materials?”

They focused back in on the voices. Some of the thugs were muttering about an office being too clean, another one making fun of the architecture... 

And someone declaring to have ‘found it’.

“Excellent,” Yama said. “This will make someone very happy.”

Hiro and Tadashi rounded the corner, Baymax right on their heels. The thugs in the hall froze. “Hey! Who are you?”

“We are Big Hero 7,” Baymax informed.

Hiro and Tadashi turned to stare incredulously at Baymax for a split second.

_‘Oh we are_ so _talking to Fred about this later,’_ Hiro groused.

_‘We’ve gotta take care of Yama first,’_ Tadashi reminded.

“You,” Yama directed, gesturing to his entourage. “Take care of the freaks.” Without sparing them anything else but a sneer, Yama turned to leave, a small sculpture in his hand. 

“Baymax, the sculpture! Rocket fist!” Hiro called. Baymax fired his fist, hitting the edge of the object and tearing it from Yama’s grip. It clattered to the ground as the fist rocketed past. Yama dove for the sculpture, scooping it off the floor. A small bit of it fell away, exposing a strange, glowing center. Yama slipped the larger piece into the pocket of his tracksuit jacket and stalked off.

“I don’t think so-” Hiro started. Before he could do much else, the seven people came in for the attack.

Tadashi blocked some of their hits with a few well-placed shields, making it look like their armor absorbed the impact entirely. All the other blows to the two of them, Hiro misdirected with a small brush of his mind, enough to seem like they had simply been misses. The blows to Baymax did nothing to faze anyone but the attackers.

_‘Hiro, we’ve gotta get out of here,’_ Tadashi warned. He flicked his hand, sending his hoverboard careening through the hall.

_‘I know,’_ Hiro sent back, dodging a few hits and getting in a few of his own. He kept directing what attacks against him he could back at the group trying to take them down. Yama’s thugs were growing increasingly frustrated with each other. It seemed like half the time they tried to hit their enemies, they just wound up hitting each other. Amateurs, right? Had Hiro not been so focused on keeping it that way, he would have snickered.

After another tense minute, Tadashi had an idea. He floated it by Hiro, but since he had no objections, he put it in motion.

The thugs started growing so frustrated with each other that they started aiming for each other from the start. Another minute and Baymax, Tadashi, and Hiro were able to slip away as they fought amongst themselves.

“I hate doing that,” Tadashi bit out as they ran for the exit.

Hiro sent him a sympathetic look. “I know. I’m sorry. For what it’s worth, I think the day you _enjoy_ messing with people like that is the day we’re in trouble.”

Tadashi sent his brother a grateful smile. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Once they were free of the building, they took to the skies. “Baymax? Call the others and scan for Yama,” Hiro called over the wind.

“Hiro? Tadashi? What’s wrong?” Go Go asked.

“We got your message about someone at SFIT,” Honey Lemon added.

“Yama and a squad of his goons were trespassing,” Tadashi cut in. “They stole something from an office. Yama gave us the slip. We’re looking for him now.”

Baymax sent a locator onto their visors. “Yama is approaching the metro,” he informed. “Nearby footage suggests that the stolen sculpture has been overloading any electrical objects it has come into close contact with.”

“That train is _electric!”_ Wasabi exclaimed.

Honey Lemon gasped. “Oh, no.”

“We’re not going to make it,” Fred pointed out.

“Everybody, get ready for pickup,” Hiro called. One by one, Baymax swooped everyone but Tadashi up off the ground. As they approached the station, one of the trains shot out of there like a bullet from a gun, bright green sparks of electricity lancing across the body. Yama was still at the station.

Without hesitation, Baymax and Tadashi both changed course, jetting after the runaway train.

“The sculpture appears to be attached to the front of the train,” Baymax informed.

“We’ve gotta slow this train down,” Hiro bit out. “Wasabi, we’re going to drop you off between the first and second car. Cut the rest of the train free. Honey Lemon, Go Go, Fred, find a way to slow it down. There’s a lot of people in there.”

Fred saluted. “Aye aye, Captain.”

Tadashi snorted, earning him an exaggerated glare from Hiro. Wasabi, Fred, Go Go, and Honey Lemon dropped onto the train. A moment later and the cars were separated. Baymax, Hiro, and Tadashi moved to the nose of the train. Baymax braced his arms against the train and ground his feet into the tracks. Tadashi fortified him with the strongest shields he could muster. The train began to slow down, but with the nano-inductive sculpture still supercharging the train...

“It’s joined magnetically…” Hiro started. “If I use my gloves-”

“Hiro, it appears that the sculpture is growing increasingly unstable,” Baymax cut in.

Tadashi looked on in concern. “How long?”

“One minute and forty-five seconds,” Baymax estimated.

As one, the Hamada brothers turned to glance back at the approaching station. Tadashi sent more juice to his boards’ thrusters, pushing harder against the train. They managed to stop it just outside the station. Tadashi looked up to see the glowing green thing zoom into his brother’s open palm.

“Hiro!”

“Oh no-”

In the span of a second, the charge in the unstable sculpture began to overload Baymax. Tadashi watched in horror as his healthcare bot and his little brother rocketed up into the sky at insane speeds. Tadashi immediately raced after them, but they outpaced him by a mile.

“Hiro, reverse the polarity!” Tadashi yelled, pressing himself as close to his board as he could.

“I’m… trying…” The connection was staticky, the circuits in Hiro’s armor likely on the verge of frying themselves. “Got it!”

Tadashi watched as Baymax’s thrusters powered off in the distant sky above him, a bright green light shooting away from them. A moment later and the sky exploded in a ring of bright green. Once Tadashi had blinked the spots out of his vision, he realized that Baymax was falling.

And Hiro was falling after him.

_“No!”_ Tadashi threw out a few shields, but they shattered as Baymax plowed through them. He did manage to stall the falling robot long enough for both Hiro _and_ Tadashi to catch up. Tadashi grabbed Hiro’s arm, pulling them both onto Baymax’s back. Tadashi already knew that Hiro wasn’t going to leave Baymax adrift until he _had_ to.

Together, they threw open a panel in the armor and accessed Baymax’s back.

“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon!” Hiro chanted. Tadashi kept his eyes on the ground, gauging when exactly they’d need to jump ship. There was a spark underneath Hiro’s hands. “ _Yes!”_

Baymax powered back on and their fall smoothed into a whopping zero change in altitude. Tadashi pressed his visor against his brother’s. “ _Never_ do that again,” he breathed out. Hiro laughed.

“Your heart rates are accelerated and your blood oxygen levels low,” Baymax added.

Tadashi sighed, a tired smile on his face. “Yeah, well, not bad, considering.”

The Hamada brothers slumped further in relief as Baymax brought them back to where the others were waiting. 

“A _little_ too close to disaster there,” Wasabi said, bringing his fingers close together to illustrate his point.

Go Go smiled. “But, it _wasn’t.”_

Honey Lemon laid her hand on Wasabi’s arm. “We saved a _lot_ of people… together.” She beamed at the rest of the team.

Hiro slipped off of Baymax’s back, Tadashi following after him. “So maybe Fred was right all along,” Hiro admitted.

Fred flipped up his visor, rubbing his monstrous hands together. “Yes, Fred _was_ right all along,” he agreed. “So, what I’m hearing is…” he took a deep breath and Tadashi snorted in advance. “We’re all fully committed to being a super team and will sign legally binding contracts to that effect,” he rushed.

“No,” Tadashi denied quickly. “No one is signing contracts.”

“Awwww.”

Wasabi grinned. “Fred, how about this?” He held his left hand out into the space between all of them.

Fred gasped in delight. “To the power of 7!” His hand immediately joined Wasabi’s.

With a small laugh, the others put their hands in the pile. “To the power of 7,” they chorused. Instead of a hand, Baymax put in a finger. “To the power of 7.”

Fred giggled. “A little late on the delivery, buddy, but we’ll work on it.”

All in all, not a terrible night in San Fransokyo.  
  
  


Back at campus the next day, Tadashi and Hiro were sure to check in on the office that had been broken into. They were surprised to find that it was Granville’s office that had been ransacked.

“Professor Granville!” Hiro said, a little taken aback. “What, uh, what happened here?”

The door was broken in and the professor’s things were scattered all around. “Ah, Misters Hamada. Come in,” she called. She picked up the broken base to a paperweight off the floor, turning it in her hand and examining it. “There are many unanswered questions,” she huffed in answer.

_‘Cryptic,’_ Hiro commented silently.

She stood up, placing the base in a box. “Can I help you boys with something?”

Tadashi smiled at her. “We just thought we’d drop on by, see if you needed any help.”

She sent them both an amused but grateful smile. “I appreciate the thought, but I’ve already done all I can. The university is sending in someone to take care of the rest of this,” she said, gesturing to the ruined room. “Thank you anyways. Best be on your way if you don’t want to be late for today’s classes,” she reminded.

Both Hamada brothers startled, looking at the time and then at each other in mild panic. “Oh, uh, thanks Professor Granville!” Hiro rushed.

“Have a good day!” Tadashi added, ushering his brother out the door.

With them gone, Granville shook her head good-naturedly. “Always in a hurry, those two.” She chuckled, watching the doorway they’d just vacated. Her smile faded a little, and she reached back down into the box, tracing the space on the paperweight where a particular sculpture used to be.

The Hamadas were both exceptionally bright students. She just hoped that she could keep them from making the same mistakes she had a long time ago.  
  
  


Later that night, somewhere else in the city while Big Hero 7 was making their new and energetic rounds, a man stood in front of a host of computer screens. He dismissed a picture of the stolen and destroyed paperweight, staring instead at a large picture of Big Hero 7.


	2. On an Open Page

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiro is assigned a partner for a project. A strange new pair of criminals is loose on San Fransokyo. Fred has... an arch nemesis?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're gonna start seeing bigger differences from canon soon!

Hiro reached out a finger towards the fish, marvelling at the way it moved under the water. “Wow,” he breathed. He could feel Tadashi’s amusement from where his brother was working across the lab.

“Mister Hamada,” a voice droned.

Hiro looked up, coming face to face with a shark. He flinched back a little.

“Hiro Hamada!”

_ ‘The goggles, Hiro,’ _ Tadashi sent over, his chuckle actually audible.

“Huh?” Hiro tore off the VR goggles, blinking in confusion. Professor Granville stood in front of him with a folder tucked in her arm.

“Follow me, please,” Granville said, turning to leave the lab.

Hiro glanced over to Tadashi, who was shooting him a crooked grin and a lazy wave.  _ ‘Good luck, little brother.’ _

After only a moment of hesitation, Hiro hurriedly set the headset down and chased after her. “Uh, Professor Granville,” Hiro laughed out. “Just, uh, taking a little break.”

Granville stopped walking away, turning to stare at him. Her face was impassive and hard to read.

“You know,” Hiro continued, unsteady and cheerful, “studies show all work and no-”

“Do not play me,” she interrupted.

Hiro stared at her for a second, his mouth still open. Tadashi was stifling snickers in the corner. Hiro sent Professor Granville a sheepish smile. “Fair enough. Uh, so what’s up?”

_ ‘Real smooth,’  _ Tadashi snickered.

Hiro shot his brother a glance.  _ ‘Quiet in the peanut gallery.’ _

Tadashi sent back a mental image of himself sticking his tongue out. Hiro sent one back in kind.

“I would imagine being a 14-year-old surrounded by college students presents certain social and emotional challenges,” Granville drawled neutrally.

Hiro blinked. “No. Not really.”

_ ‘You  _ did _ come here with a premade support system, Hiro. Not everyone gets that.’ _

“But, uh, hey, I’m sure whatever you have in mind is gonna show me  _ just _ how wrong I am,” Hiro continued.

Without another word, Professor Granville continued out of the lab with a vaguely self-satisfied look on her face.

“Best of luck, Hiro!” Tadashi called quietly, an amused grin in place. Hiro shot him one last mock-glare before chasing after the Dean.

They walked through hall after hall until they exited the building entirely. Every question Hiro asked was gently rebuked or expertly danced around. Hiro was very quickly under the impression that Professor Granville was amused. But he followed her dutifully until they slowed to a stop in front of a student bio-chem lab.

The heavy door slid open to reveal the dark room inside. As they walked in, Hiro peered at the equipment lining the tables and counters. Granville came to a stop behind a girl in a lab coat sitting on a stool with her back to them.

“Mister Hamada, meet Karmi,” Granville introduced.

The girl turned around, a vision in large goggles, a face mask, and holding an extremely concerning tool filled with glowing fluorescent green liquid. Hiro’s eyes widened, but he refrained from doing anything more than moving his head back.

The girl-  _ Karmi- _ just stared at them (at least, that’s what Hiro thought she was doing- the goggles made it hard to tell) for a moment that Hiro felt stretched for way too long. She opened her lab coat without looking away and slotted the freaky tool into a pocket before letting the coat fall back into place. After that, she quickly pushed the goggles onto the top of her head and brought the mask down to her neck.

“Hiro!” Karmi said cheerfully, taking an excited step forward. The lights in the lab flicked on. “When Professor G asked me to connect with you, I thought this gonna be super great, and it is!” she enthused. By now, she’d leaned forward until her face was less than a foot from his. Hiro leaned back. “So great!” Karmi repeated. “The greatest!”

Hiro took a quick step back, plastering on a humoring smile. “Uh… hello.” He shot her an awkward wave before clasping his hands behind his back.

Professor Granville turned to Hiro with a smile that bordered on smug. “Karmi was the youngest student ever admitted into San Fransokyo Tech,” she informed.

Karmi was still beaming at Hiro, but her next words were stiff with cheer. Like she’d somehow hardened her smile and had to force the words through anyway. “Until you.”

Professor Granville sent her a sidelong glance, her smile somehow softening and sharpening at the same time. “So she knows what you’re going through.”

“Oh, I’m- I’m going through something?” Hiro chuckled a little nervously. “That’s news to me.”

“Now you know.” Granville’s smile was warm and mischievous. “Here’s what we’re going to do.”

“We?” Hiro asked carefully, his heart already sinking as he gestured a finger between himself and Karmi.

“You,” Granville confirmed, pushing Hiro to stand closer to Karmi again.

Karmi’s stiff smile still hadn’t wavered. “So super!” she said slowly.

“I want you to “hang” with Karmi. I think you can learn something from her socialization experience.”

Karmi nodded enthusiastically, and Hiro turned to look at Granville. “Um, sure, I can probably do Thursday morning,” he allowed, running through his schedule in his head.

“Every day! All week!” Professor Granville argued, her tone making it clear this was an order made to sound like a suggestion. “Keep a journal! I want a full report on Friday!” Professor Granville turned and walked out the door.

Behind him, Hiro could hear Karmi waving quickly in her direction. “Bye, Professor G! SO pumped to have a new friend!” She let out a cheerful laugh.

Hiro just stared after the Dean with his jaw on the floor and his dreams dashed. After a beat, Hiro was startled by Karmi’s presence in his personal space. He gasped, leaning back when her face appeared by his own.

“Here’s the deal,” she started. Her smile had been dropped and all pretense of friendliness abandoned. “Stay out of my face,” a finger reached out to poke his chest, “stay out of my space.” The finger came back, this time pushing until he stepped back.

Hiro blinked. “Huh. Um, what happened to “hanging”?” he asked, the last word pumped with a little of the enthusiasm she’d thrown out.

“Of  _ course _ you’d ask that,” Karmi shot back, clearly annoyed. She stepped into his space again, gesturing with her hands. “ _ You _ think you’re some special white blood cell,” she started, moving her finger to tap on his forehead. “But you’re nothing but a common red blood cell!” At that, she turned and strode smoothly back to her desk.

Hiro just stared after her, bewildered. “What? What-what-what,” he started again, shaking his head. “Uh,  _ what?” _

She ignored him.  
  


Hiro took to rolling around in a rolling chair while Karmi ignored him. Granvile told him to hang out with Karmi, so he resolved himself to his fate. After a while, she started working on whatever projects she had at hand.

“Oooh, looking  _ good _ , A1-004,” she cooed.

Hiro blinked at her, his expression flipping from boredom to concerned in a second. He quietly put the claw-looking tool back the way he found it. “You, uh… you talk to the virus?” he asked slowly.

She shot him a glare that managed to be cold, scolding, condescending, and defensive all at once. Hiro was kind of impressed. “That was a private conversation.” She tilted her head up, a small smile playing on her lips. “But yes. A1-004 is a dear friend.” She twirled her pen, using the cute plastic bunny at the end of it to point at other petri dishes, all adorned in cute stickers. “As are R69-5, L4-382, and 95-414, who I’m still getting to know.” Somehow, her voice turned into almost baby-talk at the very end. When she started making quiet kissy noises at 95-414, Hiro decided he’d seen enough.

“Okaaaay, sure,” he said, rolling away in his chair.

She turned to him, her strange mix of cold-scolding-condescending-defensive back on full display. Hiro was beginning to suspect it was her default way of interacting. “Oh, you think talking to  _ viruses _ is weird,” she challenged. “ _ You _ , the kid who talks to a mechanical  _ snow _ man. At least my dangerous microscopic organisms are actually  _ alive _ .”

Hiro blinked, unwilling to concede a point to her. Instead, he put his hands up in surrender. “All right. No judgment. Can we just move on?” He pulled out his phone, his eyebrows creasing. “I- I need to put something in the journal for Granville.”

She let out a small puff of air through her nose. “Not my problem. Just make me look good because-” and in a flash, she was back in Hiro’s space, displaying a beatific smile and copious amounts of cheer. “I want this to be a wonderful experience for you!”

Hiro’s nose scrunched in confusion. What? He saw movement out of the corner of his eye and turned, spotting Professor Granville just inside the lab with a smile on her face. An eyebrow raised, Hiro looked back at Karmi. He narrowed his eyes. “ _ Oh _ , you are good,” he said quietly enough that Granville wouldn’t hear.

“Karmi,” Granville said warmly, “take Mr. Hamada to lunch at the dining hall. My treat.”

Karmi was still wearing her earnest grin. “So super!”

Hiro just stared at her flatly.

“Get acquainted, you two,” Granville reminded them. “Have fun!” She turned to leave before pausing and sending them a stern look that contrasted with the brightness of her eyes. “ _ Mandatory _ fun.”

“Super great idea!” Karmi agreed. Hiro just stared at her impassively. “On it!”

Karmi stood up and the rolling stool spun slowly away. With Granville gone, she turned back to her table and sent a forlorn look to her petri dish. “I’m sorry, A1-004. I know we were going to do a DNA extraction over lunch, but you’re just gonna have to incubate a  _ little _ longer.” She tapped at the glass and set it in an incubator before marching off towards the door. “Let’s  _ go _ , genius boy,” she called behind her shoulder.

“And Granville thinks  _ I _ need socialization help?” Hiro groused to the empty lab.

Lunch was more of the same. Instead of sitting with Karmi, Hiro found the table that the rest of the Nerd Crew was at. After lunch, Hiro gave Karmi’s lab another try. He didn’t last long before he was run out. Hiro stewed in his frustration for the rest of the day.  
  
  
  


“I don’t get it?  _ What _ is her problem?” Hiro asked, pacing around a rooftop during patrol.

“Are you really not getting this?” Go Go called over the comm. She skated down a sign to his level. “Karmi doesn’t  _ have _ friends. The only thing she had going for her: being the youngest genius at the school. Now, that’s your thing. You took her thing.”

“I don’t want it to be my thing!” Hiro argued. “I have my own thing!”

Baymax trilled. “My scanner is picking up a disturbance, nine blocks to the west.”

“And there’s my thing now,” Hiro declared, climbing up Baymax’s back. “Let’s go.” Go Go snatched a ride, and they took off.

Baymax landed on the sidewalk in a glorious three-point landing. Go Go and Hiro just… stared.

The ‘disturbance’ was two women in flashy dance outfits robbing an ATM. Surrounded by sparking blue electricity coming from a floating ball. To the applause of the crowd.  
  
  
  


“They got applause! The  _ bad _ guys!” Hiro stressed, standing at the lunch table the next day. “People clapped for the bad guys!”

“Telling a story through dance,” Go Go repeated sullenly, popping an aggravated bubble of gum.

“The story of kicking our butts,” Hiro corrected.

“Oh, there’s going to be  _ more _ butt-kicking,” Wasabi moaned. “Why did I choose a yoga elective over martial arts?”

“One: you centered yourself,” Honey Lemon soothed. “Two: you strengthened your core-”

“Three: we weren’t super heroes when we signed up for classes,” Tadashi interjected smoothly.

Honey Lemon shot Tadashi a grin before turning back to Wasabi. “And four: you love the big ball.”

Wasabi giggled. “Yeah. Big ball.”

“Colorful villains underestimated because of their ridiculous personas?” Fred asked, twirling around the table. He smoothed his hands dramatically across the table top. “Like so many things it was foretold in comic books!”

“Yeah!” Go Go joined in, leaning forward in the very picture of enthusiasm. “We should probably run out and study a bunch of comic books to figure out how to beat them!” She scoffed.

“Yes!” Fred agreed, ignoring her enormous eye roll. “But in this case, I choose one in particular:  _ Captain Fancy _ , issue 188.”

Tadashi raised an eyebrow, looking on with an amused smile. “What happened in  _ Captain Fancy? _ ”

“Captain Fancy lost battle after battle to a mother/daughter acrobat team,” Fred answered.

“Wow, that  _ is _ similar,” Honey Lemon mused.

Hiro exchanged an amused glance with his brother. “Did they have a floating shock generator too?” he asked.

“Close! They had a trained bear named Grizzlovech.”

Tadashi snorted. “Shouldn’t have asked,” Go Go sighed.

Hiro’s face fell into a look of resignation. “Speaking of fighting a bear…” The others followed his gaze to where Karmi was sitting across the cafeteria.

Tadashi shot him a winning smile.  _ ‘Good luck,’ _ he chimed.

Hiro marched over, peering around her stack of books to see what she was working on. “Hi, Karmi. Uh, hanging out in the cafeteria, too!” He stepped closer, chuckling nervously.

Karmi glanced up, making a small disgusted noise in the base of her throat before turning back to scribbling on an open page in her book.

“So was thinking,” Hiro started, “maybe Granville is right. Maybe the two youngest students should…” he trailed off, catching a glimpse of what Karmi was doing.

In the margins of the page, Karmi had drawn and colored a gorgeous black and purple romantic portrait. There was only one problem.

It was of the purple member of Big Hero 7.

Hiro leaned forward. “Wait, is that-”

Karmi snapped the book shut and pinned Hiro with a glare. “Eyes on your own work, creeper!” Then, without breaking eye contact, proceeded to pack up everything and walk out.  
  
  
  


“I don’t get it,” Hiro declared. “Why would she draw superhero me?”

Fred spoke up from where he was lounging in Baymax’ arms as the three of them flew over the city. “Because Big Hero 7 Hiro is a  _ hero _ hero, and  _ regular _ Hiro is just some boring, run-of-the-mill boy genius.”

“But there is only one Hiro,” Baymax queried.

“In  _ this _ dimensional timeline,” Fred corrected.

As one, their comms began to beep. Fred slapped his hood back on.

“It’s High Voltage again,” Go Go called over comms.

“Let’s go!” Hiro called. Baymax corrected their heading and sped up.  
  
  
  


Despite their full numbers, the fight went about as well as last time. Go Go was repelled in any moves she made against them. Juniper kept dancing electricity their way while Barb, her mother, kept raiding the armored truck. While the crowd cheered. For  _ Juniper. _

Honey Lemon tried to insulate High Voltage, but she couldn’t land a hit. Baymax, Fred, Hiro, and Tadashi were late to the scene. Juniper sent a blast of electricity at Baymax. He wasn’t fast enough to avoid it.

The power surge caused Hiro’s magnets to disengage from the armor while he was still high in the air.

_ ‘I’ve got you, Hiro!’ _

Tadashi swooped in and caught him on his board. “Baymax!” Hiro cried, watching as the bot spazzed around the sky.

“Power-power-power-power-power surge!” Baymax informed them, spinning around above. Without warning, a rocket fist engaged towards the crowd. Everyone dove to the side and it flew past anyone who’d been in the way until it slammed into a light pole. The pole rocked back and forth, the crowd underneath disbursing in a panic.

Tadashi and Hiro’s eyes widened in panic. Do they use their powers in public or don’t they? Hiro launched off of Tadashi’s board, sprinting for the only person left under the falling pole. He tackled her clear just before it could land.

He glanced back at the shattered glass where she had been. “Are you alright? Aah!”

Underneath him was Karmi. “I am now,” she chuckled, raising her phone to snap a picture of his face.

Hiro scrambled off of her, putting appropriate distance between them. High Voltage was gone. “Uh, stay safe, citizen!” he called unsteadily. He ran over to where Baymax had landed, the surge all out of his system and sporting a newly damaged fist.

“Uh, was that  _ Karmi?” _ Go Go asked.

“Uh, yep! Yes it was,” Hiro declared, quickly climbing up onto his perch. “Come on, let’s go. Time to get out of here. Nothing left to see.”

“Everything alright?” Tadashi asked.

Hiro hummed, a high-strung, panicked sound. “Uh, Karmi got a good look at my face! She took a picture.”

“Uhhhhhh,” Wasabi started from his spot on Baymax’s arm. “Tell her you have a clone?”

Hiro shot him a glare. “She’s  _ biotech, _ she’d see right through that.”

Honey Lemon put a comforting hand on Hiro’s armored shoulder. “Well, I guess you’ll just have to wait and see what she has to say tomorrow,” she reasoned, before perking up with a bright expression. “Ooh! Maybe I can make her an amnesia-ccino!”

All heads snapped to her in various stages of alarm and disbelief.

“ _ Or, _ ” Tadashi started slowly, “we can  _ not _ try and feed our classmates anything potentially harmful.”

Honey Lemon let out a disappointed huff. “No fun.”  
  
  
  


Hiro came to an uneasy stop at Karmi’s lunch table. “Hi, Karmi-”

She slapped her phone down, glaring at him. “Looks like I caught you,” she cut in.

Hiro leaned back, eyes widening in alarm that he tried to keep in check. “Hey, Karmi, um, any chance I could convince you to keep this quiet?” he tried.

Karmi leaned away in disgust. “Ew! You think I  _ want _ people to know you have a crush on me?”

His brain short-circuited. Hiro.exe has stopped working, would you like to send a crash report to Tadashi?

“Ew! What?” Hiro reeled back.

“It’s  _ so _ obvious!” Karmi declared. “You’re always saying stuff like,” she pitched her voice down to imitate Hiro, “‘Hey, Karmi, we should work on our project.’ N5-4 totally called it.” She pointed an accusing finger at Hiro, her hand wrapped around her phone, still displaying the picture of armored Hiro’s face.

“Wait, no!” Hiro denied, voice unsteady. He snatched the phone bringing it next to his face. “What about  _ this?” _

Karmi snatched it back with extreme prejudice. “That guy saved my  _ life!” _ she scolded. She turned to the phone with a soft smile. “He could say, ‘Hey, Karmi’ to me  _ any _ day.”

“Um, ok _ ay _ .” Hiro started edging away with a nervous chuckle. “Bye, Karmi.”  
  
  
  


“One amnesia-ccino coming up!” Honey Lemon declared enthusiastically.

Tadashi popped his head from around the corner. “What? No!”

She ignored him and started blending the mixture. Hiro ran his hands down his face. “She didn’t know  _ he _ was  _ me!” _ he yelled over the noise of the blender.

“Wait, wait,” Wasabi cut in, quickly turning off the blender. “How could she not know you were  _ you _ . You are so  _ obviously _ you.”

“It gets worse,” Hiro warned. “She’s in  _ love _ with him- uh, me?!” He ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know, it’s complicated.”

“Oh, my god,” Tadashi said, fighting back laughter.

“Ah, the power of the secret identity,” Fred called from his chair. “Classic. Just like in  _ Captain Fancy _ .”  
  
  
  


“Uh, Hiro?” Tadashi asked, leaning back in his chair. “Did you just get a text from Fred about him taking Go Go to his ‘arch nemesis’?”

Hiro hummed, eyes fixed on his project. “Yep.”

“And a text from Go Go suggesting a desire to file a restraining order on one ‘Richardson Mole’?”

Hiro paused, reaching for his own phone. “...huh. That’s…”

“Not what I was expecting for a comic run, no,” Tadashi finished.

“‘Side note, I’d like to invest in arcade games for the labs…’” Hiro read. “What?” He shook his head. “Um, keep me posted, I guess? I’m gonna go try talking to Karmi again.”

Tadashi sent him a grin. “Good luck, little brother.”

Like the mature adult he was, Hiro stuck out his tongue at him before walking away.  
  
  
  


Hiro walked into Karmi’s lab with Baymax trailing behind him. “Hey, Karmi-” Hiro remembered suddenly that one of Karmi’s points of ‘evidence’ of his non-existent crush was that very greeting. “Uh! I mean, hi! Hello!” Internally, he felt himself die a little. She turned to stare impassively at him through a white hazard suit. “How is it, uh, goin’?”

He glanced between Karmi, the creen, and the table. “Uh, should I be wearing a biohazard suit?” he asked belatedly.

“Are your eyes bleeding?” Karmi asked without looking up from her microscope.

Baymax grabbed Hiro’s face, twisting it so he could see. “They are currently not,” he declared.

“Then you’re fine,” she shrugged. A beat. “Probably.”

Hiro just blinked at her blatant lack of concern for his well-being. He was only 60% sure she was joking. “So, you like dangerous organisms?” He prodded, ever the picture of congeniality.

“Duh,” she started, turning to stare at him. “By studying them, we can figure out therapeutic uses for them.” She poked his chest with a gloved hand. “It’s called ‘science’.”

“ _ That’s _ actually interesting,” Hiro commented, following her through the lab. He absently set his phone down next to the petri dish as he walked by. “Maybe when you’re done, we can talk about my journal?” His welcoming smile melted to a little bit of apprehension. “You know, just- the one that’s due Friday.”

She rolled her eyes in her suit, tapping away at a computer. “Nobody cares. Hand me N5-4.”

“Oh, uh, sure.” Before Hiro could grab the dish, his phone started buzzing on the table. Wasabi was calling. The phone clattered against the dish. A chiming alarm on the screen behind them started blaring as the dish was shaken. The chimes turned to soft klaxons as the digital representation of whatever was in the dish was destroyed.

“No! You killed N5-4!” Karmi cried, rushing past him to grab the dish.

“This is a fortunate result,” Baymax soothed. “N5-4 would have soon reached a contagion factor of 10.”

Karmi looked up at the wall in front of her, voice tense with emotion. “N5-4 was the first pathogen I ever grew,” she said quietly.

“I will download instructions for proper disinfection methods to ensure that no part of N5-4 survives,” Baymax continued.

“He was more than just a flesh-eating virus,” Karmi declared sadly. Hiro’s eyebrows raised on their own accord. Flesh-eating? “He was a friend.”

“If you have any more N5-4 in storage, we should also dispose of-”

“Shut him  _ up!” _ Karmi snapped.

A beat. “You are upset,” Baymax observed. “I have relaxation suggestions.” Hiro’s phone started buzzing again. “Some relaxation techniques include-”

“Well,  _ answer  _ it!” Karmi snapped. Hiro dove for the phone.

“-drinking herbal tea…”

_ “High Voltage! San Fransokyo Trust! Now!” _ Wasabi informed on the other end of the line.

“Okay. Yeah. I- I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Hiro turned to Karmi, meeting her glare with a contrite expression. “So, something came up, and um, we- I need to, um… Baymax and I gotta go.”

“You think I want you to stay?” she challenged, seething.

Hiro started backing away, pulling a still-talking Baymax after him.

“...a warm bath, whistling, racquetball…”  
  
  
  


“I don’t get it. What can I learn from Karmi? She  _ talks _ to those things! I’m  _ way _ better adjusted than she is.” He blinked. “Oh.  _ Oh. _ ”

When Baymax and Hiro arrived on scene, Tadashi, Wasabi, and Honey Lemon were already there trying to contain High Voltage. They showed up, Baymax grabbed Juniper, and then… immediately overloaded.

“I need to insulate that armor,” Hiro grumbled to himself. “We’ve gotta tap out,” Hiro declared, eyeing the once-more spastic Baymax boxed in by subtle invisible shields courtesy of Tadashi. “Anyone wanna tap in?”

“We do!” Go Go spun onto the scene, Fred launching off of her back. “Fred knows how to beat these dance punks.”

“Actually, I have  _ no _ idea,” Fred declared.

Go Go nearly exploded. “ _ What?” _ She groaned, clearly reigning in some serious homicidal urges. “You said you got the answer from the comic book.”

“Yeah, to explain Hiro’s secret  _ identity _ situation. Was I not clear?”

Fred got blessed back and into Go Go, knocking them both clear out of the way.

“So Issue 188 didn’t tell you  _ anything _ about how to bring them down?” Go Go clarified.

“No,” he declared. “Overall, 188 was a letdown. Maybe Richardson did me a favor all those years ago when he cut the power to my house.”

“...What?” Tadashi asked quietly. Aside from a matching glance from Hiro, he was ignored.

“Cut the power. Duh,” Go Go realized. She quickly crawled over to Honey Lemon. “Insulate me.”

_ ‘Tadashi, help me get Baymax back online,’  _ Hiro shot out.

Tadashi sent him a jaunty salute.  _ ‘We’re gonna have to talk later about if, how, and when we use our powers in public, Hiro. I could have just isolated the orb myself but I wasn’t sure how we want to approach that particular issue.’ _

Hiro grimaced, quickly rebooting the errant healthcare bot.  _ ‘Yeah, good point.’ _

Disks now insulated, Go Go dashed forwards, deflecting electric blasts until she was able to slap two chem-balls on the shock generator, cutting the power to High Voltage.

“Use a catchphrase!” Fred called from across the room. “Say a dumb line like it’s a joke, even though it’s not really a joke.”

“Last dance, freaks,” Go Go declared, her disks returning to her wrists.

“Good one!”

“Escape dance, Juniper!” Barb tried. “Two, five, seven, eight!” Barb was caught by a chem-ball. “Juniper!” she called.

“Oh! Sorry, Mama, I’m going solo!” Juniper called back, jumping away in a series of flips.

“Ouch,” Fred murmured.

“You can’t stop the art of-” With a sharp clang, Juniper ran into Baymax’s extended wing.

“My system has been restored,” he declared. “Is anyone hurt?”

“You’re grounded!” Barb growled, glaring at her daughter.

“So, Fred,” Tadashi started, settling a shield around the gooped prisoners to drown out their bickering. It was a new type he’d been working on. He was pretty sure High Voltage was too busy to notice a little muffling anyway. “Secret identity. What’ve you got?”

“Ah, yes. You see, Captain Fancy’s alter ego, Lash Looper, may  _ look _ like Captain Fancy in a sweater vest, but  _ nobody _ ever recognizes him, not even ace reporter Rita Rampart!” Fred declared.

Hiro raised an eyebrow over his crossed arms. “And that’s supposed to explain why Karmi can’t see me as Hero Hiro?”

“Yeah,” Fred nodded. “It’s a superhero thing. People see…”  
  
  
  


“...what they wanna see. Take Lash Looper, for example,” Hiro explained.

“Who?” Professor Granville asked, leaning over her desk with an eyebrow raised.

Hiro blinked. “Uh, not important,” he backtracked. “When people look at me, what do they see?” he continued. “A robotics major, a teen genius, or maybe just a guy tryin’ to fit in.” He gestured to a dumbfounded Karmi. “Because that’s what Karmi saw. And I thank her for that.” He slipped his phone back into his pocket. “And the journal.”

“Karmi?” Professor Granville prompted.

“I don’t know what to say,” she answered, surprised.

Hiro jabbed her gently with an elbow. “‘Cause you’re modest that way.” He turned his eyes to Granville. “Professor, Karmi was great this week. I learned a lot.”

“I’m happy to hear it,” Granville replied, rolling to a bookcase behind her desk. “Dismissed.”

Karmi turned and walked out. Hiro waited for the door to close before turning to Professor Granville with a shit-eating grin. “So,” he started slowly. “All this wasn’t really  _ about _ me, as it?” he needled.

“We are  _ through _ here, Mr. Hamada,” she repeated, here back still to him.

“It was actually about Karmi,” he continued. “Am I right?”

She finally turned to stare at him, a ghost of a smile on her face and her voice as steely as ever. “I  _ said _ , we are through.”

Hiro stared at her for a moment, smile on full display before slowly turning around and walking out. Unseen, Professor Granville allowed a fond smile.

Hiro closed the door behind him, spotting Karmi waiting in the hall.

“You could’ve sold me out in there, but you didn’t,” she observed. A smug, teasing smile split her face. “You got it  _ bad _ for me, don’t you?” she taunted.

“I. Do. Not. Have it-” he groaned in frustration. He sighed. “It’s just that Granville’s right. We have a lot in common. The age thing, the genius thing.”

From behind Hiro, Baymax chimed in. “The rush of hormones coursing through your pubescent bodies.”

Hiro slapped a hand over Baymax’s face. “Alright!” he declared loudly. “That’s enough. Thanks for that.”

“You are welcome.”

“I’m just saying,” Hiro continued, “maybe we could be friends.”

A personalized ringtone beeped on Karmi’s phone and there was immediately a shushing finger in Hiro’s face.

“Big Hero 7 news alert!” Karmi exclaimed, fishing out her phone.

_ “High Voltage’s rhythmic reign of terror became a reign of error when the mother/daughter duo ran into Big Hero-” _

Karmi paused the footage, zooming in on Hiro’s helmeted face mid-command. “I wish he were here,” she sighed.

“Seriously?” Hiro muttered.

_ “Big Hero 7 ‘shocked’ High Voltage by insulating them in a maximum security prison,”  _ the news anchor continued.  _ “Yet another of-” _  
  
  
  


Across the city, the footage was muted. A man cycled through dynamic shots of Big Hero 7 taken mid-battle before pausing on the same photo Karmi had been admiring, an eerie purple glow lighting the side of his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See you guys next chapter!


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